Which is the best of the 120/220 mills?

[williaty]

So I am looking at buying my first mill. I've been half-assing metalworking projects for a while and I'm to the point where I want to be able to do astonishing things like put a hole in a piece of metal where I actually meant to do it and then have it pass straight through the material without shooting off to one side. Doing stunning things like being able to fabricate small custom brackets/fasteners for custom automotive work and actually getting to make two of them the same would also be terribly useful.

Based on the largest things I can conceive of working on, something the size of the RF-45 or one of its many clones seems to be the correct size. Since they're benchtop, they're also close enough to portable to follow me as I move over the coming years. Then it struck me that the latter statement actually brings up a problem I hadn't considered: I may not always have access to 220V electricity since I rent. So now my hunt becomes a little more complicated. Which is the best of the 120/220 motored mills? I've seen the one in the back of the Penn Tools catalog, but I assume there must be others.

Here's what's important to me:
1) About the size of a RF-45 or a clone thereof
2) Motor can be wired to run off both 120 and 220. Doesn't matter if it runs slower/has to cut shallower while on 120, I accept that
3) Has an R8 spindle so I don't have to re-buy tools if I ever get lucky enough to have a place where I can get a knee mill.

Any suggestions?

[hoss2006]

I have a chart comparing many RF45's here with voltages listed.
RF-45 Clone Mill
Hoss

[williaty]

Oh, that's awesome. Thank you.

[pete from TN]

Forget running the thing on 120v..... JMHO but I have moved my machine from several different homes with several different power configs. We even once had a house that had no 220v single phase anywhere near the garage and I wound up making a very long Heavy Gauge extension chord with dryer plugs at both ends and putting the machine where I wanted it. Just ran the chord from behind the dryer when I wanted to use the machine and made sure to plug it back up so not to tick off the wifey. The machines just run so much better with 220v. If I was not gonna use that I would try to buy a large DC motor setup and run it off 110 with a large power supply if I had to absolutely use 110v. These are benchtop machines but I think when you finally get it to your house and see just how big it is you will find that it needs the 220v. That is of course just my experience and your mileage may vary..... Good luck and IMHO you can't go wrong with the RF45 for a first mill, large enough to do REAL work and small enough to not take up the whole damn garage.... Peace

Pete

[eartaker]

Williaty,

Odd you are from Delaware, OH. I will be heading back there on Monday for a month. My dad owns an industrial powder coating company there and a metal fab shop. Industrial Special Power Coatings, and the fab shop is Wanner MetalWorx on London Rd., so if you need anything painted let me know.

On the other hand you can run the RF-45 on 120V but it would be more efficient on 220. Most of them you can changing the wiring setup for either 120 or 220 in the switch box or motor on the mill.

[williaty]

Where I am now, I would have access to 220, but there's a good chance that the pace I move to next will be 120-only and since I rent, I can't legally change their wiring.

I'm near the corner of Home Rd and South Section Line. We've (family) been here long before all the damned golf course yuppies but a new house was built when the golf course bought and tore down our barn. Left the silo as a sign for the course.

When I grew up, this place looked out onto corn, mud, and cow ****. Now it looks out onto the 9th tee. I honestly can't say that I think that's an improvement.

[hoss2006]

The 1 1/2 HP motor on my Wholesale Tool ZX45 has NO problem hogging thru steel or cast iron running on 110.
I still use the gearbox so I'm able to geardown to stump pullin range if needed.
Hoss

[arizonavideo]

I have a table saw with a 2HP motor and a 22A max current draw and I was always blowing the 15A breaker. I wired a outlet of the main box with a 6' run of 12 gauge and installed a 25A breaker and it runs like crazy now.

I also have a RF31 with a 2 hp 110v motor and it runs great on 110.

You just need good 110.

Most places use a 14 or 16 gauge wire running three or more outlets. The real problem is the wire runs in to one outlet and out to the next with the crappy push contacts. If your the third or forth plug you wont get much juice.

If their is a wall switch then you will be lucky to pull 10A and hold 100V.

If you can get a real 15A outlet you will have no problem with 110V motor but if you are far from the power box you might see low voltage.

I got lucky and have three phase in my place and now its in my shop with a nice run of 4 gauge.

[Fastest1]

You can always build a cable that has (2) 110v male plugs and joins into a 220v female receptacle. Just make sure you plug them into 2 different 110 circuits and that the wiring on both of those circuits is correct (in reference to hot and neutral prior to plugging it in. It might not meet code but we ran them on floor sanding machines in customers houses when 220v wasnt available. Never caused a problem. That being said, code in Texas has different rules than code in Arkansas. Some states this technique is acceptable. If you use 1 of those plug in wiring detector/checker devices it will let you know the arrangement of hot, neutral and ground. They cost under 10 bucks.

[Fireman11]

Yeah really if you have access to the panel and its not in the next county you can set something up. I used to do iron work on job sites and we had a 6 or 8 guage extension cord with a 30 amp 220 breaker on one end and a plug on the other for the welder. Next best would be to wire a 220 outlet on the surface next to the panel and use an extension cord. Or make sure you rent a place with a dryer plug handy...
I have a RF-45 from grizzly and love it. Got it from fleabay with tooling for less than $1K. Run the 1HP 3 phase from an inverter. Perhaps you could run it from a 120 inverter.